The invention relates to a shock dampening mount which employs resilient elastomeric cushions, especially a mount that is interposed between a conventional shock absorber and an automobile frame. Two important parameters for designing such a mount are, I) a low axial rate of shock absorption to control noise and vibration entering the passenger compartment and II) a high radial rate of shock absorption to provide better vehicle handling. The invention was designed with this purpose in mind.
Briefly stated, the invention is in a shock absorber mount which comprises two annular parts which are in axially aligned, abutting end-to-end relation. Each part has a pair of concentrically disposed, cylindrical metal sleeves which are radially spaced by a resilient elastomeric insert. The inserts have confronting voids which extend from each other into the inserts.
Because of their simplicity of design, the parts are easily assembled and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. Also the parts can be tuned to different shock absorption rates by changing the elastomers of the inserts, or the voids in the inserts, or the geometric shape of the metal sleeves surrounding the inserts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,924 shows and describes an elastic support mount which utilizes two solid elastomeric inserts which do not have surrounding metal sleeves. This is understandable since the parts of the mount are designed for a different purpose. The same can be said for the jounce bumper of U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,428 which has a surrounding coil spring, and the resilient couplings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,763. The foregoing invention is radically different from anything shown in the aforementioned patents because of the totally different design parameters required.